Widthie

Widthie is one seriously bad program that we have classified as potentially unwanted. It offers a hardly useful function of showing you your computer screen’s width at the top of your browser’s window. We have received information that this program way actually be used to spy on its users, yet this cannot be confirmed at this time as an extensive analysis is required for this to be confirmed. Nevertheless, speculation alone is good enough for getting rid of this program, because it is of no use in the first place. You definitely do not need to see your computer screen’s width all of the time, we invite you to read this short description and come to your own conclusions about this program.

This program has been released by a publisher known as Melingo. Unfortunately, there is no information regarding this publisher anywhere on the web, but it is quite possible that this publisher will offer more unreliable software in the near future. Surprisingly, Widthie is currently put up for download on Google’s Chrome Web Store. Note that Widthie comes as a browser extension exclusively for Chrome. According to the information provided on Google’s store, this extension has over 1 million users. Nevertheless, we have received complaints from users that they got this program from somewhere else — not the Chrome Web Store. Therefore, we suspect that it may also be bundled with malicious software. However, still more information is required to confirm this assumption.

Officially, Widthie is set to show you your computer screen’s width at the top of Chrome’s window. You might think that such a useless application would be unpopular, but, as previously mentioned, it has more than a million users worldwide. However, many users have realized that they got it unintentionally. So this program’s distribution tactics are quite effective.

While researching this potentially unwanted program, we have found that it can read and change all your data on the websites you visit. So the Width bar that appears on your browser’s screen could be this “data.” However, it may also imply that this program can display promotional ads, although we did not see any ads while testing this program.

We have also received reports that Widthie may have the ability to gather information about you. We assume that this information includes browsing information, search history, demographic information, PC settings, IP addresses, and so on. This information is not personally identifiable, but you may not want to share it with unknown entities anyway.

All things considered, Widthie is truly an unwanted program. It offers nothing useful to the end user, but it must benefit its developers somehow, so gathering information and selling it to third-parties is quite plausible. This program’s removal process is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is find Widthie among your browser’s list of extensions and click the Remove button. But it may also be a good idea to scan your computer for malicious software, because, as mentioned, it may come bundled.